Government “Sneak Attack” on California Raw Milk

With raw milk politics facing tough battles and having some wonderful successes across the United States, raw milk has just been dealt a serious blow and has been made illegal in California as of January 1st 2008.

We need you to act today.

I have included a letter from Mark McAfee below. We need you to write to California legislators, write letters to the editor of your local paper if you are in California, post about this issue on your blog, and contact everyone in your chapter and in your friendship network to mobilize them in this fight.

There comes a time in life when conscious people must fight… ….this is one of those rare times!!

The Governor of California just signed into law AB1735 which changes raw milk standards to include “less than 10 coliforms per ml of raw milk”. This will eliminate a consistent supply of raw milk in California, because high quality raw milk always has some Coliforms. In fact Coliforms are essential to the safety of raw milk. They are responsible for making Colicins which protect against and kill off harmful pathogenic forms of bacteria including Ecoli 0157H7. Never before has raw milk in California ever been tested for Coliforms, because they are good bacteria and are not pathogenic.

All raw milk pathogens are tested separately to assure safety.

Sadly, the reality is that the Governor probably did not even know what he was signing because it was slipped into the regulation without discussion or debate.
When he finds out what he signed he will ask for a “CDFA head on a silver plate” I am sure. That’s right. There were no open discussion or hearings on this change. No raw milk consumer or raw milk producer was advised or invited to attend the secreted meetings. The staff at the State Ag Committee now says that AB1735 was not supposed to be an area of conflict. It was just law to align California Raw Milk laws with Federal Raw Milk laws.

To any raw milk producer or consumer this is WAR!!
The CDFA and FDA hate raw milk!!!

Only the government and pasteurized GOT DEAD MILK policy makers were involved in AB 1735 and of coarse there was no discussion. This was a “strategic sneak attack”… to get rid of the looming raw milk threat to the GOT DEAD MILK industry.

We now ask that you all please shower the Governor with emails and letters. Do not blame him but ask him to correct a horrible mistake immediately. We ask that you call your state assemblyman. We ask that you write your local newspaper. We ask that you blog. We ask that super moms and dads morph into raw milk ninja fighters and protect your families. The internet and your voices are your greatest tools. But they must be heard. Tell everyone about how raw milk has changed your life.

Demand that the “eight new words introduced by AB 1735” that effectively kill California Raw Milk be immediately removed!

There is more to this story, in September of 2006, during the height of the huge
Ecoli 0157H7 spinach outbreak that sickened 197 and killed 3, CDFA mandated a recall of organic raw milk in California. After seven days of press drama, raw milk famine, fanfare, thousands of tests (including fresh manure from all cows and all milk products) and extensive research, neither the FDA, CDFA or DHS could link any illness to raw milk. The kids supposedly sickened did not even have matching pathogen tests linking them as a group! There were only two sick kids and they did not share the same pathogens. There were never four sick kids as advertised. Suffice it to say there was great government embarrassment and liability after the true facts were collected and exposed.

In the end, the government official statement said that “there was no connection between raw milk and any illnesses” (Fresno Bee front page CDFA statement reference).

CDFA then settled with OPDC for a large cash settlement payment and a mutual release of liability in exchange for not being sued for the “false recall”. OPDC signed this settlement several months ago.

AB1735 is “CDFA Payback” for this settlement embarrassment and the “false recall”. This sneak attack was because CDFA knows full well that they do not have the political support or the science to address raw milk consumers or producers to their faces.

We need your help to save raw milk in California. The entire raw milk movement is being attacked when raw milk is attacked in California or any place. You the consumer is being attacked and being denied your right to chose living whole foods.

It is time to fight for your health and your lives, because that is exactly what is
on the line. Sterilized and preserved food brings on immune depression, allergies and illness. Antibiotics then make it all that much worse. 80 percent of the human immune system is made up of bacteria in our gut. When they die we die!! We need good bacteria badly. The crisis in MRSA and VRE infections are directly associated with weak immune systems and antibiotic abuse. Most all chronic diseases and immune depression are healed by whole bio-diverse and enzyme rich foods….raw milk. Raw milk is at least 800 times more biologically diverse than even good yogurt.

Please go to www.organicpastures.com for specific directions on what to do and who to call. Addresses, contact information and legislative representative names are available here:

http://www.organicpastures.com/ab1735_landing.html

High on our priority is our Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Secretary of Agriculture A.G Kawamura, and all the state legislators.

This a raw milk health revolution….do not let it be our generation that lost this fight. We owe it too ourselves and our children to win this and place these GOT DEAD MILK protectors on notice that this is a democracy and due process and
representation still matters. Sneak Attacks will not be tolerated by the raw milk consumers or producers of California or our nation.

You are requested to attend a rally and press conference at 1130 at the Fresno Farmers Market at Shaw and Blackstone avenues on Saturday October 27th. I will be speaking to the press and they need to hear your voices loud and clear. We expect a huge turn out and we need everybody that can come. Raw milk will be on sale for all that come. Movie stars are invited…Arnold needs to hear from you.

Try your best to attend the rally wear a shirt that supports raw milk and your right to eat whole living foods!

Stand now and be counted!!! See you in Fresno at the Farmers Market on Saturday.

“When you are right you can not be too radical, when you are wrong you can not be too conservative”. MLK.

Raw Milk and Living Foods are Right!!

About Sally Fallon Morell

Sally Fallon Morell is the founding president of the Weston A. Price Foundation and founder of A Campaign for Real Milk. She is the author of the best-selling cookbook, Nourishing Traditions (with Mary G. Enig, PhD) and the Nourishing Traditions Book of Baby & Child Care (with Thomas S. Cowan, MD). She is also the author of Nourishing Broth (with Kaayla T. Daniel, PhD, CCN). Her latest book is Nourishing Fats: Why We Need Animal Fats for Health and Happiness.